External affairs minister SM Krishna called the Pakistani foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, on Wednesday, in what is being acknowledged as an attempt to pull Indo-Pak peace talks out of the gridlock it had become stuck in following the Mumbai terrorist attacks on November 26, 2008.
Though Krishna did discuss the ongoing trial of Ajmal Kasab, the lone Pakistani terrorist captured during the attacks, and reiterated New Delhi’s position that those involved in 26/11 be brought to justice, the tone was not haranguing, say sources.
“The EAM… stressed the need for Pakistan to unravel the full conspiracy behind the Mumbai terrorist attacks following the leads provided to and available in Pakistan and requested that India be informed of the results of such investigations,” said a statement released by the ministry of external affairs.
Krishna’s call comes after PM Manmohan Singh’s failed initiative at Sharm el-Sheikh last July during the 15th Non-Aligned Movement conference. Singh had then met the Pakistani prime minister, Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, but little came of that meeting with most Indians flaying the joint statement — and Singh — as against the country’s interest.
Not surprisingly then, it is the external affairs minister who is taking the first step this time. The government’s aim is to gradually create a better atmosphere before the Saarc summit gets under way in Bhutan in April.
India has been under tremendous international pressure to resume its composite dialogue with Pakistan, which New Delhi had resisted so far. “But it is time for India to move ahead even while keeping the pressure on Islamabad,” said a Western diplomat.
